


What Are You Afraid Of?

by thesnadger



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Phobias, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29340120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesnadger/pseuds/thesnadger
Summary: The man who calls himself Elias Bouchard interviews four potential employees. He asks all of them the same question.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 71





	What Are You Afraid Of?

"What are you afraid of?"

* * *

Sasha took the question seriously. It was hard to answer, the things she was scared of were too numerous to count. Heights, dark rooms, being followed at night, being mocked by her friends – or worse, put on a pedestal. She couldn't list them all without looking like a ball of anxiety, and besides, most of them weren't very deep. She considered "not living up to my full potential" but it sounded too blatantly pandering.

"Entropy," she said eventually. "That tendency towards chaos, I suppose? The idea that everything you do will one day be lost and forgotten." From there she talked about why she'd gone into academia, spinning it as a passion for preserving and expanding knowledge, fighting against the slow march of time.

She'd been pleased with her answer. But on the train home, she overheard someone talking – half a sentence without context that happened to catch her ear. _I don't want to be forgotten._

Sasha felt something dark settle in her, and in that moment she wished she had said something else.

* * *

Tim answered honestly. He hadn't really planned to, but the question had taken him by surprise and without thinking he'd said "clowns."

He had prepared for the interview. He'd researched the Institute and practiced his answers to the more standard questions beforehand. Then he'd flashed a confident smile to the mirror and told himself he was ready for anything. Clearly he'd been wrong – he hadn't been ready for a question that would send his mind momentarily reeling back to a place under Covent Garden Theater where his world had been forever undone.

Elias raised an eyebrow, and Tim smiled crookedly, playing it off. "I mean, they're pretty creepy, right? Who knows what's _really_ under that makeup?"

He said it like it was funny, a charming, quirky phobia. Elias looked back at him and smiled.

"Indeed," he'd replied. "Could be anything, couldn't it?"

* * *

Martin couldn't tell if this was normal. Everything about the interview had felt weird, though he supposed he didn't have much to compare it to. It seemed like an intrusive thing to ask, but then, if you thought about it "what's your greatest weakness" was a pretty sinister question too.

He didn't have a clue how he was supposed to answer. Was he expected to give a phobia, or say something deep and introspective? He felt his mind pulling itself through a laundry list of worries and anxieties: house fires, small spaces, his mother's disapproving tone, being laughed at, losing the apartment.

The most honest answer would have probably been "everything, just in general," but he knew he shouldn't say that. Would "not living up to my full potential," sound too fake?

_I'm afraid you're not going to hire me,_ he thought, _and that if you don't I'm not going to find a job anywhere else. I'm afraid you already know I lied and you've only called me in for this interview to tell me off for_ _the sake of some weird power trip_ _. I'm afraid you_ will _hire me and I'll cock it up in a week because I don't have any idea what I'm doing._

Mr. Bouchard was looking at him. Martin took a deep breath, and answered as best as he could.

"I'm afraid that I won't be able to take care of my mother."

* * *

Jon did not say "spiders." Nothing in the world could have made him say that.

Even if he had known for certain there would be no follow up questions, that it would be received with a shrug as the common phobia it was, he couldn't. It was too accurate, too deep. And the man sitting across from him would never understand.

But his mind went blank as he searched for alternatives. The seconds ticked by and the pause became more and more noticeable as he struggled to come up with something. The longer he took, the more panicked he became about the silence, and the more impossible it was to think at all.

Unable to furnish anything better, he finally said "not living up to my full potential."

To his surprise, Elias smiled and actually seemed pleased. Jon felt relief wash over him at the thought that his response must not have sounded as pathetically insincere to his potential employer as it had inside his own head.

"An interesting answer," Elias said, making a mark in the corner of Jon's resume. "Perhaps this could be the place where your potential is truly realized."


End file.
